by dante gabriel rossetti, from london's tate gallery
i love persephone too. and i also used to be her. i started a sucky novel about her when i was in 9th grade and knew a boy who i thought looked like hades (black hair, at least).
"I'll be a nereid. My name is Amphitrite," Persephone instructed in her sweet, high voice. Hades looked to Hestia, knowing he'd heard the name before.
Poseidon's lady friend, Hestia mouthed.
"But I can't go in the sea without a boat," Hades pointed out. "Wouldn't you rather be a dryad, and live in a tree where I could see you? Or a naiad at least?"
Persephone pretended to pout, but a relentless smile managed to peep through. "Naiads are boring, Hades. They live in rivers and streams… and it's just so monotonous." She twisted her tiny mouth around the long word, savoring its sound with pleasure.
Hades sighed. "Well--I'm horrible with boats. But if you want me to die before the game even gets going…" he trailed off wistfully.
"Oh, all right," Persephone giggled, "I'll be a dryad. You can be, um, a--"
"Sheep," Hestia suggested.
"Why don't I be a cat," Hades said smoothly, glancing hastily away from the twinkle in his sister's eye and struggling to keep a smile off his lips, "and Hestia, you may be a sheep. Or a climbing vine."
"Don't tease each other," Persephone said sternly.
and:"We're dryads escaping from a harem in Arabia," Persephone said brightly. "Do you want to join in?"
Maia, with Persephone's crown of flowers on her brow, hitched up the skirt of her chiton and fought off their jailers with a sword while Ino and Persephone carried Batea, wounded and bleeding, out of the compound. Magically disguised as three young men - Ino and Batea one between them - they bargained for passage on board a trade vessel bound for the port of Thebes. Ino, Maia, and Persephone took turns tending Batea through a violent fever for months, all the way to Thebes, where, luckily, they ran into Aphrodite and Eros. The goddess healed Batea with a glance and carried them back to their grove of trees in her chariot -
"Chariot?" said Persephone. "Aphrodite?"
"Yes," said Maia, surprised. "Aphrodite flies in a golden chariot, drawn through the sky by two snow-white swans."
Persephone pursed her lips and contrived to look humble. "Yes, of course-- I must have forgotten. But you know, I'm sure we wouldn't all fit in the chariot. Aphrodite can only take Batea and--"
"I," said Maia, "and she lets me drive us there. The swans speak to me, saying, 'Well done, noble nymph. You have earned the respect of all birds for your tree and his race forever more.'"
"They say that all of our trees have earned respect!" Ino said firmly.
"Right," Persephone said, "and meanwhile, she leaves Eros with me and Ino until she can come back for us."
"Look," Batea said, "the sky darkens. We must get home soon."
"We will," Persephone assured her. "Eros sits beside us on the ground to talk to us, and as he does, a feather falls from one of his wings--"
"It brushes against both of us before it reaches the ground," Ino cried excitedly, "and before we know what has happened, we have both grown wings as well!"
Persephone and Ino stood, spreading their wings, and flew under Eros' guidance to their grove, where they were reunited with their trees. What neither of them knew was that their transformation had affected their trees as well. The next spring, when their trees blossomed--
"Oh,-- curdled milk and tangled hair!" Ino exclaimed, standing and motioning the others to her, "it's quite late. We'll have to run to reach the village in time." And run they did, flower wreaths clutched in their hands, skirts lifted above dirty bare feet.
and:Persephone shrieked with delight as her feet left the floor and she spun dizzily through the air. She was so keyed up that the tingles didn't start till she glimpsed the crisp wave of hair on his brow. Then the nerves in her pinioned arms, the backs of her knees and shoulders, and along the whole left of her body from knees to neck came alive. She struggled to free her arms, still laughing breathlessly, kicked her feet uselessly, twisted her torso and hips quickly, trying to free her left arm, but he caught it behind her back.
"Seph!" Iris had been caught too, by Eros, somewhere below the balcony. The boys were going to win the fort again? Persephone threw her weight against his shoulder, which was enough to startle him. She twisted as his grip slackened, but it wasn't enough to free her. Now his left hand made a firm manacle around her right ankle, but she still couldn't reach the floor with her left foot because his right arm, which had supported her firmly, now crossed her back completely, his fingers around the right side of her ribcage. She tried to kick with that left foot, but she hardly had any leverage, suspended as she was, and soon he was going to get a better grip on her. Her left arm lay on his right shoulder and she took a fistful of chiton, trying for better purchase. She failed to get a good kick, but she tangled his feet as he took a step and caused a stumble. At last! Her left foot touched the floor.
She threw her entire weight behind her left shoulder and managed to take him to the floor, since he had not yet regained his balance. She didn't have the advantage of surprise for long, and when she landed on him her weight didn't even force his breath out. He caught her and rolled, trying to get a good grip to pin her arms again, but she had them up this time. She tried to twist her torso to break his grip, but couldn't manage; she successfully tangled her feet and his and the hem of her chiton, insuring neither of them could stand up quickly but little else. He was afraid to hurt her by landing on top of her too hard. That was his downfall.
When he flipped them again rapidly, but held back, Persephone threw her own strength behind his to carry the roll further (trying to roll on top of him and possibly gain her feet). He was startled, his feet slipped, and he fell heavily on top of her. Both of them were equally surprised. Her breath fled as his weight squished her lungs. His arms were bound and he was too startled to move them. His face was just a few inches above hers. Persephone stared into the deep bottomless black of his pupils, mesmerized. She could see tiny shadows of blue at the inner corners of his heavily-fringed eyes, the sculpted perfection of his eyebrows and jaw--and lips--
Was it her imagination, or was his face infinitesimally closer to hers now? Heat flooded every limb of her body, still crushed motionless under his. She lifted her face to kiss him.
Her eyes didn't quite close and she saw his widen further, the irises seeming to expand, as she fitted her lips perfectly against his. After a micro-second, he evidently decided to assist her. As they achieved a seamless joining, their minds reached out hungrily and flowed into a link. Her eyes closed and her consciousness filled with a heavy golden glow more like this ecstatic kiss than like any previous mental link. Their auras moved in swift/slow-seeming soft sweet rapture beyond articulated thought. The color-washes of impulse at the surfaces of their feeling-thoughts met and mixed and reached further, closer. The edge of the center of Persephone's understanding was past the edge of Hades', straining forward in uncurling tendrils and wrapping itself up in his consciousness. The "surface" of her mind rippled and tingled as the forward wave of her consciousness met the dark, deep parts of Hades' unconscious self. Her mind and her nerves were overloaded. Her stomach was twisting itself into a warm knot.
Suddenly she and Hades were both working to free their hands. His fingers tangled into the dark curls spread across the floor behind her head and she traced the edge of his chin. Then their two joined consciousnesses trembled, swirled and tangled further as their arms slid lightning-quick around each other and tightened convulsively. One of her arms went over his shoulder and the other banded his ribcage; his arms passed each other under her back and his fingers were tangled in the folds of her chiton. They kissed a dizzying moment like that, threatening to squeeze all the breath from each other, before by simultaneous decision they separated. Persephone's head fell back against the carpet and she once more gazed up those few inches to his face. Now his cheeks were flushed, his parted lips chafed rosy, his eyelids languid. She could see her face, the mirror, through his eyes because of the mental link they shared.
"I could never imagine," he managed, half-laughing, his eyes sparkling engagingly.
Where did you learn to do that, Persephone?Her eyes never left his.
Girls talk, she shrugged.Men talk, too, he said
I would imagine...
But, he finished,
I never listen.Persephone shrugged again and said aloud, "Your loss."
His arms unlaced and his hands moved behind her head. He lifted her face. A fraction of a finger's-width shy of the kiss, he breathed, "How so?" And closed the final space between their lips, blanking all conscious thought once more.
...ah, tenth-grade writing! you know, it's not as bad as i'd feared. rather saccharinely cute, even. but don't judge me by this, please! :)
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